


Only Abominations Drink... Cranberry Juice?

by broken_ankle



Series: Cunning Title to Follow [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elementary School, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Big Brother Michael (Supernatural), Blood Drinking, Gen, it's not really blood but it's perceived as blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25885351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broken_ankle/pseuds/broken_ankle
Summary: It's the first day of first grade, and Castiel has already made someone cry.
Relationships: Castiel & Michael (Supernatural), Castiel & Sam Winchester, Lucifer & Michael (Supernatural)
Series: Cunning Title to Follow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907785
Kudos: 12





	Only Abominations Drink... Cranberry Juice?

**Author's Note:**

> The starting idea wasn't really this. I have a thing more or less planned for the summer before college and the the first year of college, but the first meeting demanded to be written for first, so here it is.

"Why cannot you or father teach me?" Castiel asks again.

Michael sighs. "We have talked about this, Castiel," he says. "I am still in high school, and father is too busy to homeschool you. All of us are going through public school, and you will too."

"School is fun!" Gabriel intejects. Castiel looks at him with a frown. Being enclosed in a room with twenty other kids and only an adult present is not what he considers fun.

Books are fun.

Not having to deal with noisy children is fun.

School does not sound fun.

The car pulls to a stop in the parking lot of the elementary school. Gabriel and Balthazar are running to their friends even before Michael has unfastened his seatbelt.

"Lucifer is coming to get you!" he shouts after them just the same, earning himself worried looks from the parents around. He sighs, and then he exits the car to stand in front of Castiel's door, still closed. "Come on, Castiel. I have to go to school too," he says.

Castiel is pouting when he reaches him, his plain black backpack–Lucifer's old one–in tow. "I do not want to go to school," he tries for the last time.

Michael passes a hand over his face like he does only when father is not present. "We have discussed this," he says, and his tone is final. "You will go to school like all of us, whether you like it or not. Father cannot afford the time to homeschool you. Now come on. We need to find your classroom."

Castiel takes his brother's hand still pouting. He does not like the idea of having to go to school when books already teach him all that he needs.

"I am not asking you to like school," Michael said last night when he came into his room to read him a story. "I am just asking you to try to withstand this too." Castiel nodded, but now he wish he had not. There are too many children running around screaming, and too many parents failing to keep them under control. If this is school, he wants no part in it.

Castiel tries not to look around himself, but it is hard to do when they constantly have to change course to avoid colliding with someone.

It is when they sidestep a game of tag for the fourth time that Castiel sees it. A small boy maybe his own age is drinking blood from a bottle, and nobody seems to care.

Castiel tugs on Michael's hand to show him, but by the time his brother looks down at him, the boy has already disappeared behind a swarm of running children.

"What is it?" Michael asks.

Castiel shakes his head. They continue to the school. He does not look back to see if the boy is still there.

"Hi, Michael!" a woman greets when they reach the door of the firs grade's classroom. "How are you?"

Michael smiles at her. "Hello, Mrs Summers. We are all fine, thank you. I am here for Castiel's first day of school."

The woman–his teacher, apparently–turns a smile on him, and Castiel stares back. "Hello," he says, offering her a hand.

Mrs Summers appears amused when she shakes it. "Well, hi, Castiel. Are you named after an angel like all your siblings, too?"

Castiel nods. "My name is an alternate spelling of the name of the angel widely regarded as the angel of Saturn, tears and solitude. Some sources name him as the angel of the North, temperance, Saturday and one of the seven Archangels."

The woman smiles again, but he can tell she is being patronizing. "How wonderful! I taught all of your siblings, you know? I look forward to having you in my class!"

Castiel refrains from saying that he knows. His siblings seem to like Mrs Summers, but he cannot see why. She treats him as if he cannot understand but the simplest words and concepts. He is five, not stupid.

"Mrs Summers, do you mind looking over Castiel? I have to get to school," Michael says, and Castiel is forcibly brought back to the moment. A moment he does not want to live, but he promised he would try to withstand this.

"Of course! This is your last year, right? Have you already chosen a college?"

"No, I am still looking." Michael's smile is tight. Maybe he does not like Mrs Summers either. "Thank you. I will see you at home, Castiel." He turns around and nearly collides with a running boy. It is the same one who was drinking blood earlier. At least he had the decency to hide the bottle before entering the school building.

"Dean, it's this! Dean!" the boy screams excitedly at an older one.

The older boy ruffles the younger's hair. "I see that, Sammy."

The younger boy shakes the other off with the same expression of annoyance Castiel has seen on Ariel whenever someone tells her to tidy her room—usually Michael. Sammy turns to him as if noticing him for the first time. "Hi!" he exclaims. He has a big grin on his face. "I'm Sammy!"

"You are an abomination," Castiel tells him.

Sammy starts crying.

* * *

"He did what?"

Michael rubs a hand over his face. "Would it kill you to take something seriously, for once in your life?" he grits out.

Lucifer does not stop laughing. "How do you expect me to do that? Cassie–Cassie!–told a kid he'd just met he was an abomination because he'd seen him drink cranberry juice and mistaken it for blood? How can I take it seriously?"

Michael will not ever admit it, but he can see his point. Their youngest brother is not the type of person to do something like that. "That is not the point."

"Then what's the point, Mikey? Face it, you're the only proper son in this family."

Michael shoots him a glare. "That is not true."

Lucifer looks back at him with a half-smirk. "No? Okay, let's examine the facts. You have me, a slacker who's arguing with father whenever he's home, Gabriel, who'll probably die of diabetes before high school, Balthazar, enough said, and now Cassie's calling random kids abominations. Face it, you're the only proper son, Mikey."

"You are not a slacker."

"That's what you get out of all of that?"

Michael sighs. "No. You Are right, I might be too strict."

"Might?"

He shoots his brother a glare. "Regardless," he continues, "I have to talk to Castiel regarding how to behave in public. Again."

"You couldn't get Ariel to stop glaring at people, what makes you think you'll be able to get Cassie to behave like a normal kid?"

Michael does not answer.

* * *

Michael waits for acknowledgement before entering the room. Castiel is sitting on the floor under the window, cross-legged, looking at him. There is a book open on his lap, probably taken from Michael's own collection of science fiction.

"Are you angry with me?" Castiel asks. He is looking at him with that staring of his that is not normally found on five-year-olds' faces.

"Should I be?" Michael replies. He sits in front of his brother.

Castiel tilts his head. "I think so."

"I am not angry."

"Then why are you here?"

Michael pauses. Castiel has always been far more perceptive than kids his own age, and far more attuned to their father's rules than any of them, save perhaps for Michael himself. Maybe he is not doing him good by letting his brother continue like this.

"Why did you call that boy an abomination?" he asks.

Castiel just looks at him. "I thought he was drinking blood. Only abominations drink blood."

"Where did you learn that word?"

"Father uses it. I looked it up on the dictionary."

Michael holds back a sigh by sheer force of will. Maybe doting on the youngest sibling should be left to Lucifer, from now on. He is only capable of teaching.

"Do you understand why telling people they are abominations is wrong?"

"Father does it."

"He does not tell them that. Sometimes, you have to keep your opinions for yourself to avoid hurting people."

"Ariel does not."

"Ariel mutters her opinion at people, she does not say them to their faces."

Castiel frowns. "That is stupid."

In spite of himself, Michael smiles at his brother's blunt sincerity. "I know, but people do not like being criticized, especially if you do it only to criticize."

Castiel thinks about that for some time. "I should say sorry," he says at last, but it ends up sounding like a question.

Michael smiles at him. "Yes. Are you sorry?"

"I think so."

Michael smiles and stands up with a grunt. He will definitely need to take Lucifer's offer to go jogging with him.

"Good. I need to go to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for tonight. Do you want to come with me?" he asks.

Castiel closes his book with a nod.

* * *

Michael said to approach Sammy at recess. Castiel still cannot understand why, but he is willing to follow his older brother's suggestion.

Mrs Summers is watching them, when he finally makes his way to where Sammy is sitting in the sandbox.

"I apologize for calling you an abomination," Castiel says, startling the other boy, who knocks whatever he was trying to build over with an elbow when he turns.

"You scared me!" Sammy says, but he does not seem close to tears.

"I apologize," Castiel repeats. It is not his fault, but Michael always says it puts people at ease.

"It's not a problem. Do you want to build a sandcastle with me?"

Castiel frowns. He was looking forward to finishing the book he took from Michael's collection during recess, but father always says he has to make friends.

He was really looking forward to finishing that book.

"Alright," he shrugs, and he enters the sandpit.

"I'm Sammy," Sammy says.

"My name is Castiel," Castiel says.

"I don't think I can pronounce that." Sammy looks apologetic, like adults do not get his name always wrong.

"My siblings call me Cassie. You can do too."

Sammy smiles widely at this. "Okay, Cassie! Do you want to build the best sandcastle in the world?"

Castiel is highly skeptical that they will be able to, but he nods anyway.

The sandcastle is a pile of sand by the time recess is over, and Castiel regrets not reading.

**Author's Note:**

> There are a lot of things that didn't make it into this, but I'm planning to write more. Then again, this should've been Cas and Sam at college and it ended up being their first two days of first grade. The tide of my writing really is unpredictable.
> 
> Fun fact: Michael tie dyes. He'll pick it up in the summer between Cas' second and third grade. This actually has an explanation, and it has everything to do with Lucifer.


End file.
